Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jim Stanford offers a reminder of the problems with treating raw GDP as a proxy for well-being or social development. Dario Radley highlights new archaeological research showing that inequality is a policy choice rather than an inevitability in larger and more complex societies. And William Finnegan discusses how the U.S.' one-time promise that work would lead to some measure of economic security has been swapped out for a system designed to facilitate extraction and precarity at every turn. 

- Joe Perticone notes that the Trump regime's combination of deliberate climate destruction and elimination of emergency supports may push people to demand climate action. And Mark Blyth and Nicolo Fraccatori write that the short-term impact of tariffs likely won't hold a candle to the inflation and shortages caused by a climate breakdown. 

- Meanwhile, Jill Filipovic discusses how many U.S. elites have capitulated to - or happily embraced - the human rights abuses of the Trump regime. And Thomas Zimmer writes about the continued rise of despotism under Trump. 

- Stephen Council reports on Mark Zuckberberg's belated recognition that Facebook is fundamentally broken now that it serves primarily as a conduit for misinformation. And Paris Marx notes that Canada's techbros seem perfectly happy to see Mark Carney (and his utterly credulous take on AI) rise to power even if it means their personally-sponsored Cons aren't elected. 

- Finally, Code Black writes about the dangers of health care privatization - and the need to stop conservatives determined to make health secondary to profit motives. John Woodside and Natasha Bulowski report on the deep ties between the Cons and dirty energy lobbyists as a strong indication of whose interests will - and won't - be taken into consideration if they get a chance to determine federal policy. And Emily examines a number of the Cons' connections to MAGA world, while pointing out the risks of allowing their worldview to dictate Canadian choices.